Jogging Buddies
by katnisseverdeexn
Summary: "Barry, why have you taken me to my bedroom of all places?" Caitlin couldn't keep the irritation out of her voice. He took it in his stride. "Because, my dear Dr. Snow, you and I are going to become jogging buddies." OR the time Barry helped Caitlin get out of her head and took her for a jog. [Barry/Caitlin] Snowbarry fluff
1. Chapter 1

Caitlin Snow had never liked jogging. Ever. It kept her fit, but god, at what cost? She hated the sweat tricking down her spine, her ragged breathing, and her fly-away hairs. She also hated the non-existent stares she felt were always trained on her back. She absolutely hated jogging in the park, but Barry wouldn't listen. Her favourite part of the whole ordeal was getting back to her house, welcoming the sense of pride welling up inside her. _You did good, Caitlin. You actually got out of bed today. _

If she was completely honest, she used her hatred of jogging as a release. It distracted her thoughts from her weird to even weirder life. That's why Barry introduced it to her, Caitlin believed. Her fiancée, Ronnie Raymond, was once presumed dead but is now alive but with another person living inside his body as well. She had been devastated for nearly a year after his supposed death, only to find he was alive, only yet again to find that he wasn't really alive. Not truly.

Her work at STAR Labs was getting little by little sloppier, as her thoughts were constantly distracted. One uneventful morning at the labs, Caitlin had been staring blearily at a photo of her and Ronnie, only mere weeks before the accident. They had been at some kind of basketball game, and Ronnie was smiling cheekily into the camera under a cap with a team's logo on it. He had always loved basketball, while Caitlin could barely decipher the rules and really only agreed to go to the games for the food and her fiancée's enthusiasm. So when the tell-tale fly of papers announced Barry Allen's arrival, she was rudely snapped out of her nostalgia and nearly fell out of her chair in surprise. Barry caught her before she even began to fall, quickly set her back up right, moved around the other side of the white desk that was divided by her computer, leaned on his elbows, rested his chin on his knuckles and stared up at her like a naughty puppy. All under a second. _I swear, _Caitlin thought, _this man will be the death of me_.

"Barry!" Caitlin rested a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. She took a minute to settle her racing heart. "What are you doing here?"

Barry smirked nonchalantly and shrugged his shoulders, still resting his chin on his knuckles. "It's like six in the morning and the most annoying thing has been happening to me lately." While he said this, he straightened up, crossed his arms and looked border-line serious. "I can't sleep for long."

Caitlin's eyes snapped open. "When did this start happening? Are you all-" Caitlin quickly stepped into her role as Barry's physician but he cut her off.

"No, no, no, it's all right. I only sleep for a couple of hours, maybe a top of five, then I wake up and I feel like I've slept for twelve. Then I can't get to sleep and I have nothing to do. Unless you count endlessly re-watching episodes of _The 100_. Then I am doing something. God, that is an amazing show. Like seriously, the character arcs are amazing and it's not all about romance which is so refreshing and-"

"Barry." Caitlin cut into his review of his new favourite TV show, but couldn't keep a smile from tugging at her lips. "So you're okay?" She wanted to have a cemented answer.

Barry, who still looked like he was going to start raving again, chuckled and smiled into his chest. Then he peered at Caitlin under his eyelashes and nodded sheepishly.

Caitlin couldn't help herself. She started laughing. Barry's eyes lit up with surprise and happiness. It was a rare thing to see Caitlin Snow laugh. A feeling similar to pride started to bloom in his chest. _I did that_, he thought contentedly. Then he ruined it.

He moved his eyes over to the computer to see what had paralysed her before he had entered and the smile fell off his lips. Ronnie. They had made a striking couple. They both looked so happy and Barry felt that coming here maybe wasn't the best idea after all. It was like he was ruining a moment, which was ridiculous seeing as it was a computer. Still, the guilt swirled in his chest.

Caitlin followed his gaze and her laughs died out. The loneliness, the pain, the helplessness all returned to her eyes as she continued to stare at the life she might have had. Barry was cruelly reminded that the accident that gave him happiness also caused others excruciating pain. Not just others. Caitlin. His friend. She was one of the closest people in his life and her pain was his pain. The sadness that stained her beautiful face made him want to grab her and hold her to his chest.

So he would never see it again.

So she would never feel it again.

This wasn't the first time he had wished he had the power to rub away someone's pain instead of super-speed.

Barry cleared his throat awkwardly and Caitlin forcibly removed her gaze from the computer and smiled sadly up at him. The smile didn't reach her brown eyes and he hated it. Then an idea struck him.

"Do you jog?"

Caitlin took a second to comprehend the question because it was so strange and outlandish. "What?"

"Do you jog?" Barry asked again, but a smile was tainting his lips now.

"I…I can't say I do," Caitlin said slowly, looking at Barry like he had developed two heads.

Barry smiled cheekily and before Caitlin could start to say something, to object to _whatever_ he had planned, she felt his strong arms around her. He lifted her, bridal style, and quickly raced to her home. Her hair flew into his face but he couldn't find the will to care. This was going to work. This would help her from her thoughts.

He quickly dropped her off in her bedroom. She was quite the sight. Her hair was a mess, all wispy and frazzled, but her make-up was still perfectly in-tact. She also had the most adorable look of frustration that he couldn't help but smile at.

"Barry, why have you taken me to my bedroom of all places?" Caitlin couldn't keep the irritation out of her voice. He took it in his stride.

"Because, my dear Dr. Snow, you and I are going to become jogging buddies."

Caitlin's raised eyebrow was the only response that she had actually understood him.

"So, chop chop, it's 6:05 and we need to get going."

Caitlin made no move to change, so Barry made a dramatic sigh and took a step towards her. Caitlin quickly took three backwards and held out her hands to ward him off.

"Oh, no you don't. No-"

She never finished her sentence because Barry quickly got her changed into exercise gear, rubbed her minimal amount of make-up off, and managed to tame her frazzled hair into a high ponytail. Caitlin looked down at herself and slumped her shoulders. She was never going to win anyway.

Barry held out some sneakers with socks tucked in and smiled cheekily at her. He waved them under her nose and gave a bark of laughter when she snatched them out of his hands. He didn't hear all her mumbling, but could make out the words "annoying", "never going to work", and "jogging sucks".

One cursed filled minute later, Caitlin had finished mumbling and now looked at Barry expectantly. He realised he wasn't in jogging gear. He held up a finger to signal 'one sec', quickly ran home, got changed and ran back to Caitlin to find she had crossed her arms and was tapping her foot impatiently.

"I'll follow you," she grumbled as she walked past him and out her front door.

It was an easy route. Around a couple of corners, straight through the park, exit the park on the opposite side and wind themselves back to Caitlin's place. Barry set the pace and found how annoyed he was at running so slowly. He couldn't just speed ahead of Caitlin, but even when he was going this agonizingly slow she was only a few steps behind him. She wasn't unfit, she was jogging the normal set pace, but it just looked like Barry was sprinting away from her. He had subconsciously been using a bit of his super-speed. He slowed down so he was beside her and they fell into a companionable silence.

He noticed other patrons in the park also jogging their own different routes. He looked down at Caitlin and noticed her shifty and uncomfortable eyes. A crinkle formed between his eyebrows and looked around. No-one was watching them, they were all too focused on listening to music or making sure they didn't get lost. He jogged a bit closer to Caitlin and gently nudged her. She stopped looking so anxious and looked up to see what he wanted. He smiled down at her. Some of her silky brown hair was escaping her ponytail and framed her face. Her cheeks were rosy from the exertion and her eyes were no longer haunted by Ronnie's shadow. She was truly beautiful.

Barry didn't know when he had stopped feeling only friendship for Caitlin. It wasn't like he could pinpoint the exact moment, or the exact sentence she had said. It had been a gradual fall, he had later realized. They understood each other so well, from the moment he noticed she "didn't smile too much". They had grown steadily closer, grown steadily dependent, grown steadily happy with each other's presence. Realizing what he felt for Caitlin was scary. He had spent over a decade pining for Iris and now it felt strange to feel for someone else. Not wrong. Not uneasy. Just strange, and eye-opening, like seeing a new colour in all its brilliance. It wasn't like his feelings for Iris evaporated into thin air after he realized his feelings for Caitlin. They just started to not be as potent, as heart-wrenching. He still loved Iris, but in a distant, 'we could have been but never will be' way. He was content with that. Iris was happy with someone else and he had found Caitlin. He loved Caitlin. He just didn't know how to tell her yet.

Instead of saying the three little words that were at the forefront of his mind, he said, "Race you!"

Caitlin's eyes flashed with a sudden fiery determination and she looked straight ahead. Her strides got longer, her pace increased, her breath left and entered her mouth more quickly. She soon was ahead of him. Barry could only look on with awe and admiration. He couldn't identify when he began to love her, but he could tell why he loved her. He laughed and picked up his own pace. Going at human speed, however, Caitlin was faster and in the lead. They sprinted the whole way back to her home. By then, she was a good five feet in front. Barry smiled cheekily to himself and, in the last stretch, used his super-speed to stand in front of her house. Mock betrayal and anger lit up Caitlin's features. He still found it ironic that her last name was Snow, when the last thing he would associate with her was coldness. Maybe she was to other people but not to him, and he basked in her warmth. She finally reached him, but instead of stopping, continued to run at full speed and barrelled past him. The breath was knocked out of his chest and he stumbled to the side.

Caitlin stopped a few metres away and fell back onto the grass. Sweat was beading on her forehead and trickled down her neck. Her arms were splayed to either side, and if it had been winter she could have been making a snow angel. Barry laughed and collapsed beside her. Instead of staying on his back, he turned on his side so he could face Caitlin. She was breathing heavily and her eyes were shut. Her hair was a tangled mess under the green grass and some wisps where sticking to her face.

She slowly turned her head, still with eyes closed, and whispered, "I win."

Barry gave a breathy laugh, put his elbow in the grass and rested his temple on his palm. Even though she couldn't see, he nodded his agreement. Before he could stop himself, he reached out and tucked some fly away strands behind her ear. Caitlin opened her eyes and he tried to gage her reaction. She gave nothing away, but she wasn't moving away from him. That had to be a good sign. Her eyes roamed his face and her breathing turned the ever tiniest bit shaky. He smiled at her and nodded his concession again. "You win."

Caitlin wanted to say something. Anything. But she felt like she was gasping for breath – which she kind of was, but in a different way. The moment was so charged with 'what if's and all she could do was look into his kind, caring eyes. She knew why he had suggested jogging. And it had helped. It had really helped. Caitlin opened her mouth to say something (say what, god only knows), but Barry smiled again and whispered, "I'll see you again tomorrow Dr Snow. Bright and early. Be ready for a rematch."

Caitlin smiled faintly and nodded. And then he was gone, the crumple of grass being the only sign he had been there.

Maybe Barry couldn't tell her he loved her. Not yet. Not so soon after Ronnie. But he will. He just had to find the right moment.

And as for Caitlin…she had never like jogging. But she was beginning to love it.

**. . .**

**Viola! Sorry if I made Barry and Cailtin a bit OOC. This idea just popped into my head and tbh I love snowbarry fluff. I did get this checked over so I apologize for any typos. I just thought this was a cute idea.**

**Please remember to review/favourite and send me any prompts you have! I love snowbarry! **

**J xxo**


	2. Chapter 2

Ok everyone.

I'm having the same dilemma with this snowbarry fanfic and Broken Bone; Broken Hearts. I'm tempted to keep writing for this fanfic as well because I feel like I can eventually expand on it. So, I will only continue if I get enough responses.

So, to continuing:

Yay or nay?

(Also, that you all for reading this, it means the world to me.)


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